While this isn’t published as a Black Friday deal, Qatar Airways appears to be offering a few good/reasonable Business Class fares for travel between the United States and South Africa for October onwards next year. The best deals are to be found for travel originating on the East Coast, but there are a couple of reasonable fares available from other areas too.
The terms and conditions that you’ll find on the Qatar Airways website are very general and don’t actually offer very much useful information. However, what I have been able to deduce from the searches that I have done is that while you may find some of these fares available in other months of 2022, October onwards is where these fares are most easily found.
The key rules for these fares appear to be these:
- Reservations are needed at least 90 days before departure
- Minimum stay is set at 4 days
- Maximum stay is set at 4 months
- Two stopovers permitted – 1 free and one at $200.
- Tickets must be issued on/before 30 November 2021
The main issue with these deals is that because they have to be booked by 30 November and because the best availability isn’t until October 2022, the travel window is actually pretty small.
Nevertheless, if you’d like to fly to South Africa and you’d like to do it in comfort and style without breaking the bank, some of these fares may help you do just that.
Example fares
Boston
- Cape Town – from $2,810
- Johannesburg – from $3,373
Chicago
- Cape Town – from $2,994
- Johannesburg – from $3,126
Dallas Fort Worth
- Cape Town – from $3,290
- Johannesburg – from $3,343
Houston
- Cape Town – from $3,322
- Johannesburg – from $3,658
New York
- Cape Town – from $2,766
- Johannesburg – from $2,992
Miami
- Cape Town – from $2,965
- Johannesburg – from $3,193
Philadelphia
- Cape Town – from $2,776
- Johannesburg – from $3,092
San Francisco
- Cape Town – from $3,255
- Johannesburg – from $3,543
Washington D.C.
- Cape Town – from $2,775
- Johannesburg – from $3,748
All these fares can be found on the Qatar Airways website.
Understand what you’re booking
All Qatar Airways flights between the US and Doha (the longest leg of any journey mentioned in this post) offer the excellent Qatar Airways Qsuite which will see you traveling in some style. Most (all?) of the fares that are being offered, however, book into the new Qatar Airways Business Class ‘Lite’ fare category which means that they don’t offer everything a regular Business Class fare usually offers.
You’ll find more details of what Qatar Airways Business Class Lite fares are all about here, but in summary, this is what you need to know:
- Lite fares do not offer complimentary lounge access
- Oneworld elite members whose status grants them access to lounges may only be able to access the lesser lounges on offer in Doha and not the Al Mourjan lounge.
- Lite fares do not offer a complimentary date or route change
- Lite fares offer fewer elite status credits and redeemable miles than standard Business Class fares
- Unless you have oneworld Sapphire or Emerald status, Lite fares only offer complimentary seat selection at online check-in
None of these should be a deal-breaker if your primary aim is to get to your destination in a comfort (everyone gets the same Business Class seat…more or less) but they are things to keep in mind if you’re not to be disappointed somewhere down the line.
Crediting these flights to AAdvantage
Qatar Airways is a member of the oneworld alliance which means that these flights can be credited to the American Airlines AAdvantage program.
Following the radical changes that the AAdvantage program has recently announced, the number of miles earned on a flight is now what determines the number of elite status credits that an AAdvantage member will credit to their account when booking through a partner airline. With that in mind, here’s what a mid-tier Platinum Elite member can earn when booking two of the fares that I’ve highlighted (assuming a P Class Lite Fare):
New York (JFK) – Cape Town (Distance = ~22,640 miles)
- Base Miles earned = 16,980
- Cabin Bonus earned = 0
- Elite Status Bonus (60%) = 10,188
Total redeemable miles earned = 27,168
Total Loyalty Points earned = 27,168
It’s probably worth pointing out that if you have top-tier Executive Platinum status, you’ll do a lot better – you would earn over 37,000 redeemable miles and Loyalty Points.
Bottom Line
For the next 5 days, Qatar Airways is offering roundtrip Business Class fares between the United States and South Africa starting at a little over $2,750. A little disappointingly, availability for these fares appears limited to October 2022 onwards so the travel window is small, but if you can make the dates work and you’re looking for a comfortable way to get to South Africa, some of these fares look pretty good.
Link to Qatar Airways
